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VOLUME 21 , ISSUE 11 ( 2017 ) > List of Articles

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Critical care junior doctors' profile in a lower middle-income country: A national cross-sectional survey

Ambepitiyawaduge De Silva, D. D. S. Baranage, Anuruddha Padeniya, Ponsuge Sigera, Sunil De Alwis, Anuja Abayadeera, Palitha Mahipala, Kosala Jayasinghe, Arjen Dondorp

Keywords : Critical care, junior doctors, lower middle-income country, resource-limited setting, training

Citation Information : De Silva A, Baranage DD, Padeniya A, Sigera P, De Alwis S, Abayadeera A, Mahipala P, Jayasinghe K, Dondorp A. Critical care junior doctors' profile in a lower middle-income country: A national cross-sectional survey. Indian J Crit Care Med 2017; 21 (11):733-739.

DOI: 10.4103/ijccm.IJCCM_268_17

License: CC BY-ND 3.0

Published Online: 01-01-2019

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2017; The Author(s).


Abstract

Background and Aims: Retention of junior doctors in specialties such as critical care is difficult, especially in resource-limited settings. This study describes the profile of junior doctors in adult state intensive care units in Sri Lanka, a lower middle-income country. Materials and Methods: This was a national cross-sectional survey using an anonymous self-administered electronic questionnaire. Results: Five hundred and thirty-nine doctors in 93 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) were contacted, generating 207 responses. Just under half of the respondents (93, 47%) work exclusively in ICUs. Most junior doctors (150, 75.8%) had no previous exposure to anesthesia and 134 (67.7%) had no previous ICU experience while 116 (60.7%) ICU doctors wished to specialize in critical care. However, only a few (12, 6.3%) doctors had completed a critical care diploma course. There was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) between the self-assessed confidence of anesthetic background junior doctors and non-anesthetists. The overall median competency for doctors improves with the length of ICU experience and is statistically significant (P < 0.05). ICU postings were less happy and more stressful compared to the last non-ICU posting (P < 0.05 for both). The vast majority, i.e., 173 (88.2%) of doctors felt the care provided for patients in their ICUs was good, very good, or excellent while 71 doctors (36.2%) would be happy to recommend the ICU where they work to a relative with the highest possible score of 10. Conclusion: Measures to improve training opportunities for these doctors and strategies to improve their retention in ICUs need to be addressed.


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